Anthony McIntyre  🏴‍☠️ I was just about to leave a premises on North Strand Road last Monday night to make my way to a public discussion in the Teachers' Club when I heard news that dismayed me. 

Immediately, I felt the words of Bertold Brecht throb in my head.

Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.

A friend told me that just a few hundred yards from where we sat, a rally was taking place on East Wall against migrants. It later prompted the satirical headline from Waterford Whispers, Woman Proud That First Time She’s Ever Protested Was Against Refugees

According to the Sunday Times the protest was "seized upon by some of Ireland’s most vocal right-wing activists." They are as opposed to helping people in need of accommodation as the people I was going to listen to are in favour of welcoming them. The event in the Teachers' Club was organised by Irish Left With Ukraine – "a campaign of anarchists, socialists and trade unionists united in support of the left in Ukraine." During the course of the evening I would gladly hear calls for people to maintain an open door policy towards refugees.

I arrived slightly late, having stopped along the way to assist a foreign woman attending to an inebriated Irish man who had collapsed on his bottles of beer and was bleeding from a head wound. The meeting was already under way, chaired by Nóirín Greene, former executive member of the ICTU. On the panel of speakers were David Joyce, ICTU International Officer; Seamus Dooley from the NUJ and guest speaker Yulia Yurchenko, a left wing Ukrainian activist.

The last time I had gone to an ICTU event in support of the defence of Ukraine against Russian aggression was outside the Russian embassy a month after the supreme international crime was launched against the Ukrainians by the regime of the right wing capitalist gangster, Vladimar Putin. I later joyously learned of some idiotic comments that we were all siding with Nazis. It is like being called a sinner by a religious whackjob, entertaining but never enlightening. 

The inability of people to think seriously, I am well used to. I was left nonplussed by the screamers. What is disappointing is that people on the Left are loyal to what Seamus Dooley accurately described as a Russia that no longer exists. I think what they are wedded to is the authoritarianism that went with the Russia of old both pre and post USSR. In this they find common cause with the far right who seem to identify with the Russian state because they think it will suppress women, ban gay rights and jail anybody opposed to Russia being an official Christian nation - along with anything else those with fascist tendencies take umbrage at. 

It would be uplifting to see more people at these events particularly when Russia is waging terrifying war on the civilian infrastructure of the invaded country. The venue had a bigger capacity than the numbers that turned up. That did not negatively impact on the quality of the discussion. 

Seamus Dooley lambasted Moscow for its treatment of journalists in the country, claiming that it was frightened of cooperation between Russian journalists and their international colleagues. Truth was an important weapon against the invaders and they were determined to suffocate it. He also said he had no loyalty to the political leadership in Ukraine but had a strong sense of fidelity to the people of Ukraine. This was a point earlier made by David Joyce when he pointed out that trade unions were being suppressed by the neo-liberal government of Zelensky which was in some sense using the war to regulate the relationship between Capital and Labour to the advantage of the former and the detriment of the latter.

The main speaker was Yulia Yurchenko, a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy in the University of Greenwich and author of the book Ukraine and the Empire of Capital: From Marketisation to Armed Conflict. Her family still lives in the besieged country and she has travelled there throughout the war to visit them and see the situation on the ground. She argued that Russia waged a war of imperialistic genocidal aggression. While it might have sounded too close to hyperbole for my ear the fact that Putin has stated his intention to eradicate Ukraine as a nation and subsume it within Russia, while at the same time likening himself to Peter The Great landgrabber does at least provide her with grounds for making the charges that she does. Coupled with John Mearsheimer's seriously weak efforts to portray Putin in much softer focus, Yurchenko is not swimming against the tide. 

She appealed for people not to scream vitriol at NATO in response to the West sending arms to a beleaguered Ukraine, citing Lenin who said that when in a pickle take help from anywhere you can. Not being particularly enamoured to screamers or tub thumpers of any hue, I nevertheless remain suspicious of NATO, seeing in it the cutting edge of Western neoliberalism as encapsulated in the words of Thomas Meaney:

Nato went from being a primarily defensive organisation to a brazenly offensive one – from being a geopolitically conservative custodian of the status-quo to an agent of change in eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, it would be foolish not to see the wisdom in the Bulgarian proverb that you are permitted, in time of great danger, to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge. And until that bridge is safely walked the realpolitik maxim of Thucydides holds good, the strong do what they will, the weak do what they must.

Once it is accepted that Russia has no right to wage aggressive war and that Ukraine has a right to wage defensive war, the NATO role becomes the lesser of evils.  

Echoing David Joyce earlier in the evening Yulia Yurchenko lashed out at how Ukranian neoliberalism was using the war as cover to reinforce marketisation and privitisation. 

All the sentiments echoed during the course of the evening resonated with me. I left the event feeling that in the face of invasion, evasion by the Tankie Left is morally and strategically bankrupt. Supporting tanks only when they are used against workers in Budapest, Prague or Beijing seriously blurs the gap between the camp ideologies of the Left and those of the Right. 

Left Tankies and Right Wankies, Leftoids and Rightoids - not a lot to choose between. 

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Learning At The Teachers

Anthony McIntyre  🏴‍☠️ I was just about to leave a premises on North Strand Road last Monday night to make my way to a public discussion in the Teachers' Club when I heard news that dismayed me. 

Immediately, I felt the words of Bertold Brecht throb in my head.

Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again.

A friend told me that just a few hundred yards from where we sat, a rally was taking place on East Wall against migrants. It later prompted the satirical headline from Waterford Whispers, Woman Proud That First Time She’s Ever Protested Was Against Refugees

According to the Sunday Times the protest was "seized upon by some of Ireland’s most vocal right-wing activists." They are as opposed to helping people in need of accommodation as the people I was going to listen to are in favour of welcoming them. The event in the Teachers' Club was organised by Irish Left With Ukraine – "a campaign of anarchists, socialists and trade unionists united in support of the left in Ukraine." During the course of the evening I would gladly hear calls for people to maintain an open door policy towards refugees.

I arrived slightly late, having stopped along the way to assist a foreign woman attending to an inebriated Irish man who had collapsed on his bottles of beer and was bleeding from a head wound. The meeting was already under way, chaired by Nóirín Greene, former executive member of the ICTU. On the panel of speakers were David Joyce, ICTU International Officer; Seamus Dooley from the NUJ and guest speaker Yulia Yurchenko, a left wing Ukrainian activist.

The last time I had gone to an ICTU event in support of the defence of Ukraine against Russian aggression was outside the Russian embassy a month after the supreme international crime was launched against the Ukrainians by the regime of the right wing capitalist gangster, Vladimar Putin. I later joyously learned of some idiotic comments that we were all siding with Nazis. It is like being called a sinner by a religious whackjob, entertaining but never enlightening. 

The inability of people to think seriously, I am well used to. I was left nonplussed by the screamers. What is disappointing is that people on the Left are loyal to what Seamus Dooley accurately described as a Russia that no longer exists. I think what they are wedded to is the authoritarianism that went with the Russia of old both pre and post USSR. In this they find common cause with the far right who seem to identify with the Russian state because they think it will suppress women, ban gay rights and jail anybody opposed to Russia being an official Christian nation - along with anything else those with fascist tendencies take umbrage at. 

It would be uplifting to see more people at these events particularly when Russia is waging terrifying war on the civilian infrastructure of the invaded country. The venue had a bigger capacity than the numbers that turned up. That did not negatively impact on the quality of the discussion. 

Seamus Dooley lambasted Moscow for its treatment of journalists in the country, claiming that it was frightened of cooperation between Russian journalists and their international colleagues. Truth was an important weapon against the invaders and they were determined to suffocate it. He also said he had no loyalty to the political leadership in Ukraine but had a strong sense of fidelity to the people of Ukraine. This was a point earlier made by David Joyce when he pointed out that trade unions were being suppressed by the neo-liberal government of Zelensky which was in some sense using the war to regulate the relationship between Capital and Labour to the advantage of the former and the detriment of the latter.

The main speaker was Yulia Yurchenko, a Senior Lecturer in Political Economy in the University of Greenwich and author of the book Ukraine and the Empire of Capital: From Marketisation to Armed Conflict. Her family still lives in the besieged country and she has travelled there throughout the war to visit them and see the situation on the ground. She argued that Russia waged a war of imperialistic genocidal aggression. While it might have sounded too close to hyperbole for my ear the fact that Putin has stated his intention to eradicate Ukraine as a nation and subsume it within Russia, while at the same time likening himself to Peter The Great landgrabber does at least provide her with grounds for making the charges that she does. Coupled with John Mearsheimer's seriously weak efforts to portray Putin in much softer focus, Yurchenko is not swimming against the tide. 

She appealed for people not to scream vitriol at NATO in response to the West sending arms to a beleaguered Ukraine, citing Lenin who said that when in a pickle take help from anywhere you can. Not being particularly enamoured to screamers or tub thumpers of any hue, I nevertheless remain suspicious of NATO, seeing in it the cutting edge of Western neoliberalism as encapsulated in the words of Thomas Meaney:

Nato went from being a primarily defensive organisation to a brazenly offensive one – from being a geopolitically conservative custodian of the status-quo to an agent of change in eastern Europe.

Nevertheless, it would be foolish not to see the wisdom in the Bulgarian proverb that you are permitted, in time of great danger, to walk with the devil until you have crossed the bridge. And until that bridge is safely walked the realpolitik maxim of Thucydides holds good, the strong do what they will, the weak do what they must.

Once it is accepted that Russia has no right to wage aggressive war and that Ukraine has a right to wage defensive war, the NATO role becomes the lesser of evils.  

Echoing David Joyce earlier in the evening Yulia Yurchenko lashed out at how Ukranian neoliberalism was using the war as cover to reinforce marketisation and privitisation. 

All the sentiments echoed during the course of the evening resonated with me. I left the event feeling that in the face of invasion, evasion by the Tankie Left is morally and strategically bankrupt. Supporting tanks only when they are used against workers in Budapest, Prague or Beijing seriously blurs the gap between the camp ideologies of the Left and those of the Right. 

Left Tankies and Right Wankies, Leftoids and Rightoids - not a lot to choose between. 

⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

21 comments:

  1. ' Nato went from being a primarily defensive organisation to a brazenly offensive one – from being a geopolitically conservative custodian of the status-quo to an agent of change in eastern Europe.'

    And the rest I.e don't forget the Middle East and Africa.

    I gather from the above article that we must hold our nose and support Ukraine despite being supported big time by the biggest cause of conflict in the world in my lifetime, NATO, because this time NATO really does care who dies and has no vested interest other than they just want peace?

    I would rather hold my nose and support Russia seeing as they are the only country that is giving NATO a bit of what it normally metes out to lesser countries. Be in no doubt NATO operatives are running the Ukrainian side in this conflict and despite 'plausible deniability' be in no doubt NATO operatives have and will be killed in this conflict.....and surely that should be welcomed by all who oppose NATO imperialism?

    P.s the bearded one used to say ' let's get to the root cause of the conflict'. That applies to Ukraine......and when the CIA, White House etc egged on a coup in Ukraine 8 yrs ago and then egged on aggression and death upon Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens thereafter and ignored peace agreements, that left a pretty obvious root cause.

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    Replies
    1. The article does not say you "must" do anything. The right to choose is paramount. You can choose whatever side you wish. You are free to even endorse the Nazis if you choose on the basis that they gave Western imperialism a bloody nose.

      I take a completely different view and support the right of Ukraine to defend itself against the supreme international crime. My opposition to NATO does not allow me the latitude to support war by an expansionist authoritarian regime on its right to exist. For me it would require an enormous amount of hatred to wish on a society destructive war simply because the destroyers are on my side against whatever it is I despise.

      You are free to support that war of aggression and argue your case here. We are not a Russian site - you won't be gagged by us!

      Delete
    2. I" would rather hold my nose and support Russia seeing as they are the only country that is giving NATO a bit of what it normally metes out to lesser countries.". Even if the Russians are raping five year old girls. You really are trapped in your rabbit hole, MickO.

      Delete
  2. Ukraine shall and will always have the right to defend.What use is having a home without the right to defend.Shall we all fall in line to join the queue too many brave men deserve better

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  3. 'Ukraine shall and will have the right to defend.'

    As do the people of Ukraine who were viewed as lesser beings by the Ukraine banderista govt I.e those of whom were Russian speaking and had Russian sympathies. Millions of them btw.
    P.s 'we are not a Russian site'...........I would rather walk down the shankill rd singing chucky songs than be in Kiev voicing criticism of the Ukraine regime I.e if you think Kiev junta respect the 'free press' then you are in a different world.

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    1. The Ukraine government is not Banderista - its left critics in the country are clear about that.

      It is neo-liberal and is a society that deserves all the criticism that can be thrown at it for legitimising the far right element in its ranks. Although it is strange that the interviews given by the Azov leader in which he proclaimed Putin as his role model/hero. Many people with experience of both Ukraine and Russia claim that Russia has a worse far right problem that Ukraine.

      There has been a crackdown on civil liberties as the meeting above addressed but press freedom remains much stronger according to the journalists who oppose both the Russian war and the Zelensky regime.

      At least we can point to journalists who live in Kiev and do criticise the regime. They can even say Ukraine is at war with Russia something that can get you jailed in Moscow. There they have to pretend it is a special military operation. How many have walked down the Shankill singing chucky songs?

      I am quite glad to live in a different world from you. But I would not seek to deny you a right to live in a world of your choice - freedom to choose - a concept with defending. You are always welcome to exercise your choice and make your case here. Whether you are praised or criticised for the case you make here - that is not our concern. People are free to exercise their choice in terms of how they interpret what you say.

      Delete
  4. Barry, me thinks you have been listening to too much NATO propaganda(as others on this site do, heck some even think real independent journalism and exists and needs 'protected' lol)Similar to the fake news that the Ukrainian blade at the onset of the conflict claimed Russian troops were raping and pillaging (I recall NATO propaganda accusing Libyan troops of similar....and was proven false) their way through Ukraine.
    For the record, western leaders and talking heads in our 'free world' have plenty of friends that rape kids. Just saying.

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    Replies
    1. You are a latter day Holocaust denier, MickO.

      Delete
    2. Barry, not always advice I am good at adhering to, but best not to take ourselves too seriously in these matters. The arguments stand or fall on their own merits. See your man led his team to the last 16, even though I haven't watched any of it yet!!

      Delete
  5. 'The Ukraine government is not Banderista'

    I guess all the statues they erected and public holiday for him were mere Russian propaganda? As is all the anti Russian education,speaking etc etc? Did the Ukrainian leftists address any of that at all? The 'root causes' need to be addressed and Barry can address the bull root causes.

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    Replies
    1. That would not be the wisest of guesses but you are free to choose to guess whatever you want.

      Delete
  6. Anthony, at least I have still someone to cheer for after Wales' sad exit!

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    1. who do you fancy to emerge as world champions?

      Delete
  7. who do you fancy to emerge as world champions?

    The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia...Or an African team. England play Senegal next....This Saturday I'm going black.

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    1. are you watching it Frankie? My son thinks Brazil.

      Delete
  8. Anthony, I am loving it. I want an underdog to win....A complete outsider like the Kingdom or Senegal....I think it would very funny. and good for football

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    1. I have watched none of it and don't even miss it. Thought I would have had withdrawal symptoms. Senegal, okay but not Saudi Arabia.

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  9. I will say Brazil, Anthony. Faultless so far. Thrilled to renew my acquaintance with Raphinha!

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  10. Haven't seen an outstanding Brazilian world cup side since 82

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  11. Hard to get interested until the semi's though my Australian son is well pleased with the win over Denmark. Into the last 16.

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